As escalating hostilities prompted the UAE to shut its skies, thousands of Indian tourists, workers and transit passengers found themselves grounded. Moneycontrol’s *Travel Desk* compiled an exhaustive advisory at 14:30 IST on 2 March that every mobility manager should bookmark. Highlights include dedicated Indian embassy hotlines (toll-free 800-46342 and WhatsApp +971 54-309 0571), curated do’s & don’ts for cyber-scam avoidance, and a step-by-step refund checklist covering Air India, Emirates, Etihad, IndiGo and SpiceJet. The piece also confirms that Dubai, DWC and Abu Dhabi airports remain closed to passenger movements until at least midnight on 2 March; authorities will reassess hourly. For companies with staff in Dubai Expo City or Abu Dhabi’s KIZAD free zone, the advisory recommends registering employees on the embassy’s *E-Migrate* crisis portal to streamline potential evacuation flights. Travel insurers are already treating the closure as a *covered security event*, enabling claims for additional hotel nights and meals—HR should prompt travellers to keep itemised receipts. A lesser-known implication is the knock-on effect on **Indian visa-on-arrival traffic**: passengers originating in North America who planned to connect via Dubai for onward e-Visa travel to India must now reroute through Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, both of which keep normal operations. With no clear timeline for reopening, the safest corporate response is to freeze all non-critical UAE travel, activate remote-work contingencies for stranded staff and maintain daily check-ins until the General Civil Aviation Authority lifts restrictions.
Source: Moneycontrol
